I have a friend who has fibroids and has decided to have a hysterectomy

[divineorder]

11. All I can tell you is the experience from my embolization of 10 years ago.

2 days in the hospital, only minor pain, 2 days staying upstairs (was advised against going up and down stairs), a few days taking it easy. I barely needed my painkiller once I went home. Was able to keep my hormones until natural menopause. In about a month I was back walking my neighbor's dogs (a long story) with little pain.

There's no way a hysterectomy could compare. It's taking out an entire organ with all of the complications of both surgery and recovery. I was told it would have meant about a week in the hospital and a month of recovery at home in bed by comparison. By comparison, my embolization was under the kind of anesthesia that an outpatient surgery (was it propofol?, I'll never know) and sedatives. But I was awake all day recovering, eating, and lying in bed with only minor incisions and an order to lie down and stay still for at least a day.

Embolization might even be cheaper since they are considered "outpatient" surgery.